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UNITED
KINGDOM TRAVELS, JULY AND AUGUST 2002
RAIN AT LAST Well, over the last few days we have been doing more bike riding. We repeated one of our favorite rides, which goes through a river. The next day we went to the Forest of Dean and did another good ride. 
On Tuesday, July 30 we went to Birmingham to pick up Don’s rental car.
Birmingham is a big, industrial city. Quite a change from our beautiful
sunny countryside rambles. We got there too early, and had to stall
around and find something to do until it was time to pick up the car.
While we were eating lunch it started to rain. This is the first rain
we have had for a couple of weeks. Finally it was time to get our car.
Don is very happy with his little Mercedes rental car. It is 
cute, kind of like the Smart, and handles well. He drove it back
to Gloucester in the storming rain and had a big smile on his face all the
way.The next day it stormed and rained some more. We just stayed in and Don downloaded all of his pictures to the website. He loves the fast internet service that David Bywater has on his computer. Now he will have to get it too when we get home. GOODBYE TO GLOUCESTER Time to move on to our next exchange, so we spent Thursday morning packing and cleaning. Everything fit into the rental car, with a bit of juggling, and we headed up the highway to Hereford. (We just watched “My Fair Lady”—In Hartford, Hereford and Hampshire, hurricanes hardly ever happen!) As we traveled north and west we enjoyed the scenic countryside. It was still rainy, off and on. We stopped in Hereford for lunch, and then visited the cathedral there. They had a display of the Magna Carta, and also the Mappa Mundi. The Mappa Mundi is a medieval map of the world, drawn with Jerusalem as the center. It was quite interesting to try to identify the different countries included on the map. From Hereford we got off the big highway and moved on to the smaller roads. 
We drove through the Golden Valley, which is beautiful. As
we drove we passed a sign pointing the way to “Arthur’s Stone” and decided
that, weather permitting, we would come back to the Golden Valley to do a
bike ride and visit “Arthur’s Stone”. We stopped at Hawkswood Farm 
and arranged a large room with a king bed (hooray!) and sheep baaing under
our window. Don had a great time talking old farm chores and machinery
with Grandpa and I enjoyed Mrs. Morissey’s lovely flower garden. |
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